you're a poser
other inflammatory statements within
I’m assuming you have interests, good ones. One’s that are better then other interests you’ve had. I’m assuming you like your interests, like them enough that you take part in them and do them and talk about them every now and then. I’m assuming you share these interests with people, whether they have the same interests or not you slide a word into a conversation every now and then to elicit some query. You’re good at what you do, good enough to share it, that which you’re not good at you don’t share until you feel differently. I’m assuming you’re not a poser, you’ve liked your interests for long enough that they’ve stood some test of time and you’re committed, locked in.
We’re in a Poser epidemic, you can’t go a few steps on the internet without stumbling into someone who’s persona fits a little too tightly, preconcieved notions of what they think they should look like choking the joy out of them. It’s a truly harrowing thing for us non-posers out there, those of us who are fully committed to the bit, last thing we want is to be confused for one of those posers trying to be us. God Forbid! Every day it gets harder and harder to figure out who’s who till you’re looking at the mirror before leaving the house hoping you’ve compiled your outfit and your psyche in a way that presents as nowhere near poser adjacent.
It’s a fatalist clusterfuck. It’s a tirade against decency. An almost comical posturing on how to properly perform posturing. Pathetic. Poser culture only harms people interested in culture. Too little interest means you float from one thing to another and never receive a poser allegation. I think we’re past the point of the “name 5 songs”, at least I’d like to hope we are. Being a “poser” has become so widespread that it has a measure of frivolous banality to it.
Around a year or two ago I wrote an essay about how putting a phone in everyone’s hand has made us all unwitting participants in the formation of the aesthetic principles social media would follow. That essay hinged on the fact that because everyone is posting all the time without explaining (or even thinking) why; we have lead ourselves to the replacement of ideaology with aesthetic and altogether death of purpose.1 Everyone can take a picture, but not everyone is a photographer. Everyone can write, but not everyone is a writer.2 Everyone can watch the same old films you watch. Anyone can look up lore videos on Warhammer 40k. Ears hear new music all the time. In a world where everything is freely, easily accessible, are posers real anymore?
bet you didn’t think you’d see r/kankan on substack huh
I have seen people selling screenshots of artists pages before they blew up. “Trust me dude, I’m not a poser, I’ve been here since 15k listeners, I’ve got proof.” We’ve commodified being a “real fan” to a point where being a “real fan” is a meaningless test of qualifications and not actual interest and connection that which we admire. I like F1. Not enough to pay attention to it in any large way but when I see Daniel Ricciardo doing something I smile and go hey I love that guy. I know nothing about who’s in pole position or how the aerodynamic regulations are affecting the construction of next years cars3. I would never say I’m a big fan, but I’m a fan. If it’s on I’ll watch a race, but I’m not gonna chunk out the 2 to 3 hours of a day it takes up just for F1; I just don’t care that much. On the off chance that I meet an F1 fan I’ll talk to them about it and let on that I don’t know too much and hope that they don’t take this as some kind of afront to their sensibilities. The weight of being a casual fan has diminished even as the load of being a “real fan” has mounted and mounted. There’s always a bigger fish in the sea. You used to be able to say oh yea I like that without being subjected to inquisition on how much you like that.
Unfortunate Solutions
The only way to fully avoid being a poser is to not engage with anything in more then passing fancy. That is not any way to live a good life. Even the most avid hobby enjoyers know that somewhere out there their is someone with more experience, knowledge, or insight (or the horrifically more terrifying combination of all of these things). I’ve found that the people who have spent so much time around their hobbies and interests, and I’m talking time in decades upon decades; are some of the most interesting people in the world, and more often then not some of the kindest. There is something impressive about sticking with something for so long and not becoming bitter. This is not to say that there aren’t people who’ve got decades of experience and are crotchety bitter fools. They have their reasons, but the people who’ve inspired me in what I love have more often then not impressed upon me that the greatest way of loving something is to share it. Maybe that 74 year old who glowers at me when I step into his record shop is the real poser. I’m not one to judge, I say we should let the posers enjoy what they want, as long as they don’t start bringing the ambience into a bleak drone.
This essay’s been sparked for a number of reasons. On one hand I know posers aren’t real, I know that poser allegations speak moreso on the person casting them then the poser; if the poser is obviously posing then it hardly ever feels like something worth noting.4 On the other hand I’ve been worrying about being a poser. Ironic I know but it’s a common occurrence to think I’m guilty of the things I think about. Just how my brain works. In the process of dissuading myself on the notion of posers I realized that posing is something we’ll eventually all do. We want to fit in. It’s part of human psychology, even if we don’t won’t to meld into a homogonous mush we’d at least like to be fitting in the rest of those spiky people on the fringe, those who seek true ostracization are often not doing very well for themselves.5 To get into the spaces we want to fit into we often pretend we know more then we do, or we pretend we’ve got opinions on things we don’t know anything about. It takes someone exceptionally brave to say “I don’t know this” with no caveats or yets or that well’s. To go out there and admit a complete lack of knowledge is something we should aspire to be doing more often. The less you know the more you can learn. We’re all posers at some stage. We should be kinder to those who artificially pose, because one day they might pose naturally. That brings up an interesting point, even those who know more then the average can be thrust into a position of mentorship or guidance purely by chance. A novice can look like a veteran in the right lighting. But if you know nothing and want to know more, you’ll take their word and trust them, you don’t really have other options. At some point you’ll have learned all they can impart but at that point you’ve probably met some of their friends who know something of value and then you realize you’ve been thrust right into it.
I run a radio show at college. I was supposed to have 3 hours of mentoring but my mentor was a silly character6 and decided that he could cram everything I needed to know into 30 minutes and then spend two hours talking about instagram reels and spotify premium. He was a good teacher, so I learned the necessary things. By the time my show’s start date rolled I was excited and nervous and then suddenly keenly aware that I remembered a grand total of what I’d been taught. It wasn’t because I didn’t pay attention; it’d just been a while. I meekly peeked my head out of the studio and asked for help. I received it. I’ve had my show for a full semester, and even with only one measly winter to spring I could walk into that studio and be on the airwaves blindfolded. I still don’t know how the full board works, but I can go on air and good golly I do7, and if need be, I could tell someone who knows nothing how to do it just as well as I do. It’s a thing of magnitudes. Posing is intentional and unintentional and rather muddled.
pose(r) for the camera
The truth of the matter is we’re all posing, Whether we’re pro’s who know the right way to pose or newcomers to the game we all got to flash a wink and a sturdy smile if we want to make it anywhere. Somewhere down the line you had to fit in or you had to stand out and you posed to make up for it. Truly negligent posers, the ones who’re8 content with staying in their self assured bubble of relevancy and topical aspirations aren’t really worth the thought we give them; so what if someone’s chucks are unscuffed and their griptape is brand new. They’re not gonna be at the skatepark anytime soon, let the negligent posers pose. Let the aspirational posers flourish.
Final words. Gatekeeping is dumb unless you’re gatekeeping against bigotry. Posers aren’t real and in the event that they are real they are insufferable and pretty easily avoided. We all have our vices, just make sure they don’t clamp down too tight and you’ll be good. Crowd etiquette is dead in the ground and it’s up to us to revive it. Stop Making Sense is playing at 7:20pm and it is now 6:44pm so I think I’m gonna finish this essay later. Finally and most importantly, you’re goated.
Nadav
Keep in mind that I wrote this essay was one of the first I wrote when I was getting back into writing and I was both jaded and overambitious in my assault on the status quo, wonderful essay despite these two things and I might post it here one day, if you’d like to read it before that fact please dm me
I started this essay before that essay dropped and I will not be discussing it, if you write and want to call yourself a writer by all means go ahead, if you’re dumb enough to think that you can monetize bad writing and get away with it by all means. I posted a note about culture critics the other day ““culture critics” could just shut up 80% of the time and the impact of their work would be the exact same” and I think I was absolutely right. That’s my piece.
thank you to my brother for telling me so much about f1 that I picked up on this cool lil tidbit
posers are often discussed in the skating community but it’s really easy to see when someones being a skating poser, take a look at the grip tape, the chucks and the board scuffs and that’ll tell you all you need to know without watching someone ride it.
even those who want to run into the woods end up being inspired by other people who’ve run into the woods
how i love thee germ
will be self promoing my radio show at some time in the future so keep an eye out for that when it happens
did a lot of research if this was a proper contraction of who are and it turns out it is!
you're so real for writing this!! such a well articulated piece
So many great points and a really interesting look into ‘posers’ and the thin line of not wanting to be seen a certain way so much, you become it, it’s quite a complicated things. Radio show! Exciting!